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The 50 Greatest Breakthroughs Since the Wheel (NOVEMBER 2013)
theatlantic.com ^ | NOVEMBER 2013 | James Fallows

Posted on 01/01/2022 1:47:20 PM PST by bitt

some questions you ask because you want the right answer. Others are valuable because no answer is right; the payoff comes from the range of attempts. Seven years ago, The Atlantic surveyed a group of eminent historians to create a ranked list of the 100 people who had done the most to shape the character of modern America. The panelists agreed easily on the top few names—Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, in that order—but then began diverging in intriguing ways that reflected not simply their own values but also the varied avenues toward influence in our country. Lewis and Clark, or Henry Ford? Thomas Edison, or Martin Luther King? The result was of course not scientific. But the exercise of asking, comparing, and choosing helped us understand more about what these historical figures had done and about the areas in which American society had proved most and least open to the changes wrought by talented, determined men and women.

Now we turn to technology. The Atlantic recently assembled a panel of 12 scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers, historians of technology, and others to assess the innovations that have done the most to shape the nature of modern life. The main rule for this exercise was that the innovations should have come after widespread use of the wheel began, perhaps 6,000 years ago. That ruled out fire, which our forebears began to employ several hundred thousand years earlier. We asked each panelist to make 25 selections and to rank them, despite the impossibility of fairly comparing, say, the atomic bomb and the plow. (As it happens, both of these made it to our final list: the discovery and application of nuclear fission, which led to both the atomic bomb and nuclear-power plants, was No. 21 of the top 50, ahead of the moldboard plow,

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: breakthroughs
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To: Bonemaker

I just installed a new Eljer crapper today.
Despite the govt mandated 1.6 gals/flush it seems to work pretty well.
Fine Mexican craftsmanship.


21 posted on 01/01/2022 2:48:24 PM PST by nascarnation (Let's Go Brandon!)
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To: ModelBreaker
They missed the innovation that has and will change the world more than any of the listed ones.

That was # 20. A real disaster for humanity.

22 posted on 01/01/2022 2:48:41 PM PST by FatherofFive (We support Trump. Not the GOP)
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To: catnipman

Thanks for that info about “The Count of Monte Cristo”! I remembered somewhere that there was a financial collapse from the Semaphore system. I thought it might have been simple arbitrage from the speed of the information transmission, but I totally forgot about that plot in the book!

I’m not sure I read the unabridged Penguin version — I have an old hardcover copy I bought decades ago. It is a great tale!


23 posted on 01/01/2022 2:48:45 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (81 million votes...and NOT ONE "Build Back Better" hat)
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To: catnipman

Well not the compass, paper, or gunpowder...


24 posted on 01/01/2022 2:50:21 PM PST by Borges
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To: ModelBreaker

True re birth control pill.

However those of us who resist it (I don’t oppose all contraception but believe that to be abortifacient and also bad for women hormonally) should thrive.


25 posted on 01/01/2022 2:52:53 PM PST by Persevero (You cannot comply your way out of tyranny. )
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

26 posted on 01/01/2022 2:54:15 PM PST by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: FatherofFive

“That was # 20. A real disaster for humanity.”

Sorry, I missed it when I was scanning the list.


27 posted on 01/01/2022 2:56:57 PM PST by ModelBreaker
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To: bitt; Lazamataz

I protest, they omitted Cialis and Viagra.


28 posted on 01/01/2022 3:03:26 PM PST by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism:http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html))
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To: Bonemaker

If you ever doubt living in today’s world, remind yourself that toilet paper advertisers in the late 1800s promoted their TP as having “no splinters”.

Nevertheless, Thomas Crapper is high among the greatest inventors in history.


29 posted on 01/01/2022 3:04:14 PM PST by nicollo
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To: bitt

The Atlantic?
May as well get my quantum physics articles there too.
Not.


30 posted on 01/01/2022 3:04:44 PM PST by Da Coyote
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To: bitt

J M Browning. 1911. Government Model.


31 posted on 01/01/2022 3:13:44 PM PST by AlbertWang
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To: bitt

This is the first of these I’ve seen that actually had cement on it!


32 posted on 01/01/2022 3:36:38 PM PST by Axenolith (WOOT! Another day without False Vacuum Decay!!!)
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To: bitt
Here are a few absolutely critical missing inventions:
33 posted on 01/01/2022 4:32:12 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (81 million votes...and NOT ONE "Build Back Better" hat)
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To: bitt

This is, of course, impossible to do. Every invention, or recognition, is based not upon want but perceived need.

And if you put such a diverse crowd of “experts” into a room, scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers, historians of technology, and others to assess the innovations, who is going to agree? Besides, the number one process in the invention of most products is accident. Same with the poll if anything matches.

Another wasted poll of worthless information from a company that has supported liberal causes and funded liberals for many years.

wy69


34 posted on 01/01/2022 4:34:56 PM PST by whitney69
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To: bitt

Paper in the second century? Say what? Have they not heard of papyrus? Papyrus was in use since the 14th century BC.


35 posted on 01/02/2022 12:35:31 AM PST by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplophobe bigot!)
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